Stone Soup

I've been asked to talk more about KEEP CO-OP and the scrumptious food we make and consume, so I'll start with Saturday's Special Meal, which I helped plan and cook.

First, a little backstory: Special Meals are special because there's no head cook on rotation, meaning co-op members can sign up to help cook the meal of their dreams. They usually involve expensive ingredients and lots of different dishes. One of my friends is planning a Southern Wedding special meal for later this semester. We're going to propose to Harkness and celebrate with grits, (veggie) hush puppies and other delights, including a wedding cake.

This special meal, however, was too early in the semester - only just out of interim, no one was sure of ingredients or plans and no one wanted to take responsibility for a not-very-special Special Meal. Only Tommy was signed up to cook and we had no head cook at all! Elizabeth and I stepped up and started exploring the options for a folk-tale based stew. (If you're not familiar with the story, click here.)

We walked down to the herb garden to find basil and parsley, but found only perennial herbs -thyme, rosemary, sage and mullein - which wouldn't do at all. I did gather a handful of onion grass for flavor and effect, seeing as Keep was out of onions; and when we went back to the walk-in that stores our produce, I found parsley and lots of hidden vegetables to use in the stew.

I spent the next hour or so gathering ingredients. I picked the last of the healthy leaves from my faithful basil plant, which, although a little bitter, would be good filler herbs for the pesto. I moved armfuls of zucchini and bags of little potatoes and spent the next hour chopping.

More or less, this is how kitchen shifts generally work: Generally, there are two KPs, who start chopping and preparing food three hours before the meal begins and works for an hour. Then the first hour cook and the two-hour cook arrive and take over from the KPs. The head cook is also expected to show up at about that time; they will assign tasks to the cooks, thank the KPs, and get going. An hour before the meal, the second hour cook arrives and the first hour cook leaves. The main dish is usually in the oven or on the stove by this point; salad has probably been chopped and is mixed. Dressings, sauces and side dishes like kale chips are usually prepared while the main dishes are cooking. By the time the meal is served, hungry OSCAns are already thronging the dining room, ready to descend on the delectable creation.

Head cooks are elected, while KPs and other cooks are assigned by preference and availability to weekly shifts. With some exceptions, such as co-opers with elected positions (like me!) or Time Aid, everyone does five hours of work in the kitchen. In addition, everyone must cook for one Special Meal each semester, and crew on either a Friday or Saturday night -- no one should have to clean up after a Pizza Night or Special Meal.

Anyway, Tommy and I were essentially KPing at this point. I went over to Harkness, using the Keep flag as a poncho, to borrow some sliced tomatoes and vegetable oil. By the time I got back Tommy was halfway through the chopping, and Elizabeth showed up soon after.

After that, the chopping and cooking is mostly a blur. However, unexpected angels descended upon us. Eli, who wasn't scheduled to work and might have just come into the kitchen with the munchies, ended up making very garlickly basil and parsley pesto to go with the soup. We used the last viable leaves from my basil on the porch. What a last hurrah!

Meryl, a friendly and sociable vocal/undecided Double Degree, also showed up. She was accompanied by the equally-affable Rebecca, who isn't even a Keeper! They made mint and ginger tea to help combat our collective fall sniffles. I hadn't known you could make tea in a pot, but it came out quite good. They also mde cookies, deemed "Woodland Spice Drops," which were a little like Snickerdoodles but not as sweet. They turned out to be a crowd favorite - the perfect desert after Stone Soup accompanied by our pesto and Annadamma bread.

Our Stone Soup, in the end, contained:

potatoes

carrots

diced tomatoes

black and pinto beans

celery

sweet potatoes

other various veggies

lasagna

onion grass

one sanitized stone

We went from an overwhelmed cook shift of two to a contentedly buzzing kitchen of six, cooperative in every sense of the word. Yes, the soup was a little late, and we were in despair until the last minute, but there was plenty to go around -- and plenty of praise for the chefs. I think our little village lived up to the fable of magic Stone Soup!